This toy is a monster. It is grand in scope. It makes me feel like I am 10 again. It makes me feel small.

One of the most brilliant things about the Animated Clone Wars series is the opportunity to explore the evolution of technology. Whether Lucas meant it or not, there is a certain visual aesthetic that evolves over the course of the series.

Episode 4 featured worn out technology. Everything looked used, dirty, cannibalized. With episode 1, all the technology is new and shiny Chrome ships and bright neon lights. From episode 2 into Episode 3 we begin to see glimpses of this technology being used, getting worn and battle scarred. But It is in the clone wars that the designers have an opportunity to explore the technology of the saga. Already a myriad of new vehicles have been introduced to the series, but we’ve also gotten to see the origin of one of the rebellion’s most classic vehicles – the Y-Wing fighter.

The Y-Wing we grew up with in the 80’s was a skeletal vehicle. It doesn’t have a big part in the movies, and is seen only briefly in the hangar on Yavin and during the death star run. But once Kenner decided to make a vehicle of it, it instantly became a more important part of the mythos.

The original toy was fantastic. I had one as a kid. It was loaded with gimmicks like dropping bombs, a rotating turret, and an electronic buzzing sound. Another cool feature was the ability to place your own astromech droid behind the pilot – something the X-Wing lacked. All that plus lever activated landing gear and an opening cockpit – well, damn that was a great toy. It is no wonder we all have such fond memories of it.

The one from my childhood is long gone, in a dump somewhere I am sure. So when a re-release came out recently I was all over it. It brought back memories. Unfortunately, they took a lot out of the toy. No electronics, no motorized turret, no removable droid. Hasbro had done a new x-wing a few years ago that was in-scale with their 3/34 figures and it was epic – why not do this with the Y-Wing?

Someone must have heard my wish, because at this year’s toy fair Hasbro announced a new Y-Wing…. From the Clone Wars.

This Y-Wing appears to be in-scale with the 3 ¾ figures and represents the ship as it was new, before all the armor had been removed. The rebellion modified the hell out of their ships, and one way was to remove unnecessary plating to increase speed and maneuverability.

This toy is a monster. It is grand in scope. It makes me feel like I am 10 again. It makes me feel small.

The box is big, but not as big as some of the recent offerings. It’s sturdy cardboard, with a die-cut front showing an action scene through the holes. This is part of a gimmick where part of the box becomes a diorama.

Taking the toy out is simple, and there is little assembly. The long engines need to be snapped in, and the missile launchers attached. Included is an instruction sheet, catalog and sticker sheet.

The stickers are old-school. They feel like they are made out of paper, and all they do is add a little texture around the vehicle. There are maybe 30-or so stickers, most of them off-white.

The cockpit holds two figures – one pilot and one gunner. The pilot cockpit opens from the side (like the old one) and features a separately molded steering wheel and detailed interior. The rear seat is covered by a smoky translucent dome with tilting cannons. This too has a molded steering apparatus. Unfortunately, the turret does not rotate, and they don’t tilt that much.

On either side of the cockpit are buttons to launch missiles under the nose. These buttons are sort of flat and easily missed. In fact, what ends up happening is I forget the button is there and when I grab the vehicle I end up launching the missiles.

Behind the cockpit is a place to store an astromech droid (not included). You need to lift the panel up to fit the droid inside. The space seems too deep to fit a clone wars droid, as the head of the droid just barely pops out. Perhaps if you leave the third leg in?

The next major gimmick is the opening bays on the body. Pressing buttons on either side opens the spring-loaded top doors in a slow, fluid motion. The missile launchers on the doors can each hold two missiles which fly off at the press of a button. The cavity left inside is huge, and can store all of the missiles and then some. Extra details like the detailing inside the ship really make a big difference.

The two large engines on the back are removable. The instruction book actually lists this as a play value item, saying it simulates Battle Damage. Once each engine is removed you can see the same engine that is visible on the classic Y-Wing.

Underneath the ship you have three landing gear that need to be lowered manually, as well as two bombs that can be dropped by pressing buttons above.

So what’s not to love?

That diorama I mentioned? Useless. It’s not long enough to fit the 27” long Y-Wing.

Also - it’s about $65.00. And for that we should get a little something more. Maybe lights? Included figures? Weathering detail? Removable panels? Who knows. But this is how these things are these days. Everything costs more, and if we want vehicles of this size, we will have to pay for them.

Personally, I don’t regret this purchase one bit. Now, where to put it?

The flying spider robots from Star Wars are now available for use in your own home.

Sometimes I forget that its not about the price, its about the fun! The Vulture Droid from Star Wars: Clone Wars is undoubtedly a fun toy. These guys are somewhat less ubiquitous as Tie Fighters, but their design has always struck a chord with me.

The Vulture Droid in starfighter mode is quite large. Easily around a foot long. It is very solid and well built, easily a match for any five year old. The toy comes equipped with two missile launchers and six missiles. The missiles are fired via two buttons on the top side of the toy and spare missiles can be stored in the ends of the "wings." The paint job is crisp and features some light simulated chipping to suggest that this droid has seen some battle.

From the rear we can see the Trade Federation insignia.

The Vulture Droid is a pleasingly minimalistic design. It doesn't even have landing gear! You'd think that would be a problem, but the Vulture has a trick up its sleeve.

After a simple transformation, the Vulture Droid converts to walker mode. In this mode it stands atop four ball jointed legs. The legs also feature a double-joint for added flexibility. The toy is light, but sturdy and stands with no problems.

The head can be rotated around and moved forward a few ticks. It makes the toy very expressive. The red eyes are quite vibrant.

The sheer size and flexibility of this toy is its strongest selling point. The gimmicks are clean and simple and in no way impede the articulation or stability. Even if you don't like Star Wars, pick up one of these guys and let him terrorize your other toys.

There is a method to this madness. Three Star Wars reviews in a row? IG Lancer Droid is part four in the build-a-droid series for R4-J1.

The IG series droids were only seen for a few seconds in the original trilogy, namely a brief appearance by IG-88 on the bridge of Darth Vader's Star Destroyer. But like most of the cooler designs in Star Wars, the short appearance has led to a huge fan following, with his entire back story mapped out prior to his appearance in the movies. Ain't fandom great?

We'll cover IG-88 and his story later, but for now we will talk about a predecessor, the IG Lancer Droid. The IG Lancer droids were active during he Clone Wars as machines of war created by the InterGalactic Banking Clan. Most notably these droids were led into battle by the bounty hunter Durge, as they attacked the city of Harnaidan on their swoop vehicles. Obi Wan Kenobi and his lancer squad repelled the attack, destroying most of the droids.

The IG Lancer Droid figure is part of the Build a Figure assortment from 2008's Legacy Collection line. Each figure in the line included a part for a droid. Included with this figure was the body for R4-J1.

While this figure shares the body and legs with the 2007 "vintage" collection IG-88 the figure is unique enough to warrant getting.

First off - the articulation is FANTASTIC. This killer droid features SEVENTEEN points of articulation. That's almost unheard of with star wars figures. Just look at some of the poses he can pull off:

Accessories include a vibro-lance and two blasters (one short and one long). The vibrolance has a clip on it that enables you to attach it to the long blaster, or the figures arm.

The design and detail on this figure are great, but there are a few minor flaws. The intricate wires that plug into the body have a tendency to come off during extreme poses. They just plug right back in, but it could be better.

The hands have a hard time holding the blasters, and the lance doesn't clip on the arm well.

That's about it - the IG Lancer droid is HIGHLY recommended.

The Clone Trooper (Heavy Gunner) is not a great figure. Lazy design and poor materials choice make this figure forgettable.

The problem with the whole idea of build-a-figures is that it makes you go out and buy figures you otherwise wouldn't, like this piece of crap.

Okay, maybe that's too strong. It's not crap, it's just not great.

The Clone Trooper (Heavy Gunner)is as shown in the Clone Wars animated series (the first one). The interesting thing to me about this series of figures is that although they are based on appearances from the stylized animated Clone Wars cartoon, the figures are designed to look like their live-action counterparts.

The big flaw with this figure here is the overall fit and finish. The blue paint is sloppy, the guns are bendy, and the thing doesn't like to stand.

So first lets talk about the gun aka the "Quad Cannon". The Quad Cannon attaches to the figures back and then the cannon swivels up and over the characters shoulders where it can be held with both hands. The cannon makes the figure front-heavy, and falls over, hence the use of the stand in the photos (stand not included with figure).

You can get it to balance with zen-like patience.

The cannon can dissasemble if you like, although I don't see the purpose of it other than to allow things to get out of whack. When I opened the package the ends of the cannon were all in different directions, so you will likely need to rearrange them.

The cannon also can swivel around to be kind of stored on the back, but it looks awkward.

As far as the figure goes, articulation is fine, and you get a removable helmet, so that's not too bad. But the helmet is rubbery with poor paint applications.

Basically, I just bought this for the build a droid part. Your mileage may vary.

I admit, I only bought the Clone SCUBA Trooper because it had flippers. There, I said it.

I admit, I only bought the Clone SCUBA Trooper because it had flippers. There, I said it. When I see big toy companies and franchises doing things like this it just throws me for a loop and I get sucked in.

So yeah, a Clone Trooper with SCUBA gear. This design comes from one episode of the Clone Wars animated series (the first one) where Kit Fisto leads a bunch of Clone troopers on an underwater mission on the planet Dac.

The Clone SCUBA Troopers are outfitted with underwater gear, as well as a unique set of armaments. The propulsion pack can be detached from the figure, and the two torpedoes (or jets?) can be detached as well. Hoses from the helmet attach to the figures pack.

Check out the sweet tribal design on the side of the tanks.

Each flipper is removable, and stay attached to the feet by pegs in the heels.

The gun is large, which is cool, but is horribly bent in package, which is not cool. Hasbro needs to use firmer plastic on its weapons.

Articulation once again rocks on this figure, with 14 points of articulation. No ball jointed hips, but the rest is pretty great.

Also included with this figure are parts for the Build a Droid RJ-41. This figure includes the head and middle leg.

This is a pretty great figure, it has lots of accessories, lots of articulation, and looks great. Another winner for Hasbro.

Obi-Wan Kenobi once flew with your father in the clone wars.

Obi-Wan Kenobi. Legendary Jedi, but also a general for the Army of the Republic. We usually only got to see Obi Wan as the grizzled old hermit, or the young eager padawan.

The Clone Wars series showed us General Kenobi in action. Obi-Wan was not a general who issued commands safe from his bunker. No, Obi-Wan got right out in the front lines with the clone troopers, and did battle in the thick of it.

Perhaps more likely a show of solidarity than anything else, General Kenobi dons clone armor when heading out with his troopers. Its actually a hybrid mix of select armor parts and traditional jedi robes.

He looks pretty awesome.

As far as action figures go, you don't get much better than this. Old Ben is one of the most articulated and gimmick-laden star wars figure to ever be released.

Lets start with articulation. There are approximately 14 points of articulation. Ball joints at the neck, shoulders, elbows, knees, torso and ankles. Insane

Accessories include removable helmet, lightsaber, lance, and R4-J1's leg for the build-a-droid figure.

The helmet is soft rubber and fits over the head. The lance is included to replicate a scene from the clone wars animated series where Obi-Wan jousts with Bounty Hunter Dirge.

Parts of the figure are what we call "Soft Goods" - meaning the cloth cape and skirt. The belt is also a separate piece.

The one thing that keeps this from being one of the best figures ever is the head. The head sculpt is atrocious. If you can find a better Obi-Wan head, switch them and you have the perfect figure.

This toy may be the best 3-3/4 scale Artoo ever released.

One of the things I really like about the new Clone Wars cartoon is the fact that they really give an opportunity for secondary characters to shine in the spotlight. Artoo was featured prominently in a few episodes where he was kidnapped by a Thrandoshian scavanger and sold to Grevious, who then Dissected him. What a phenomenal story that was, and it made me immediately go right out and get this latest release of everyone's favorite astromech droid.

This toy may be the best 3-3/4 scale Artoo ever released.

The toy features the standard R2 articulation, and then a little more. After all, there is only so much you can do with a trashcan on wheels.

The head turns, the legs move, and the feet are jointed as well. Each foot has two small wheels on the bottom. The center leg is removable, and that too has a wheel below.

Each leg features clip-on boosters so R2 can hover small distances. I know, we never saw these in the original trilogy, but maybe he gets damaged somehow.

The front of the droid has two vertical panels that open to reveal tools that swing out. One is a claw and another is a poker of some sort.

On the back of the droid, a panel opens and from the compartment you can pull a cable with a hook at the end. The cable extends 5 inches long! And what's even cooler, to retract the cable, you twist Artoo's head!

If that wasn't enough, there is also a pop-up sensorscope on the top of his head.

You may have seen this figure and thought, I don't need another R2 figure, but you are so so wrong. This is an amazing figure, and you NEED to have it in your Star Wars collection.

While the V-19 made its on-screen debut in the made-for-TV cartoon mini-series “Clone Wars” just before “Revenge of the Sith” premiered in theaters in 2005, it makes its feature film debut in the all-CGI “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”.

Video review included!

The V-19 Torrent is a single-seat starfighter designed and built by the Republic in the early months of the Clone Wars. Meant to fill in gaps in anti-fighter & anti-vehicle roles, it needed to be both fast and maneuverable. Its two large main wings and vertical stabilizer are filled with strong repulsorlifts, which makes ideal as a V-TOL craft to place in remote bases. Its wings & tail were also designed to fold up vertically above the main body together in order to save space on the hangar deck of Venator-class Star Destroyers, which could carry at least 192 of these. While the two main engines placed directly between the main hull and the wings provide more than enough power, a smaller secondary engine was built into the vertical stabilizer to give it an edge in dogfights in an atmosphere. The V-19 is armed with two wing-mounted laser blasters, and a pair of missile launchers.

The V-19 is, what I consider, a pinnacle design in the Lego “Star Wars” line. Very simple to play with, yet providing a good time in building and admiring, and it also remains faithful to the source material. While the V-19 made its on-screen debut in the made-for-TV cartoon miniseries “Clone Wars” (2003-05) just before “Revenge of the Sith” premiered in theaters in 2005, it makes its feature film debut in the all-CGI “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”. One of the largest inspirations for the V-19 comes from the real United States-built F4U Corsair which fought in the skies during World War II. The F4U- a carrier-based heavy Navy fighter- had wings which could be retracted backwards when it was not flying, allowing many more to be packed into the limited space of a carrier than other earlier aircraft, and a trend which would continue into many modern-day designs.

Landing Mode

The three large wing surfaces- one actually being a vertical stabilizer- rest suspended above the main chassis. This is, of course, very reminiscent of the [chronologically-]later Theta-class shuttle, and Lambda-class shuttle [aka Imperial Shuttle (Set #7166)]. Each main engine is nothing but circular segments joined together from within, and then mounted to the inner wing surface. I recognize at least one of the largest solid black parts used in there as the engine nacelles seen in recent Lego City-themed jet aircraft [such as the small Airplane Mechanic (#7901) accessory set]. And inside each engine is the longest Technic rod I have ever seen- a white #16! This runs the majority of the length, starting at the intakes on the front. (I don’t know if the #16 rod has appeared before this, but it’s crazy-long! And when assembling it, you have to be sure you don’t put too much pressure on it, lest is snap in half- and I’m pretty sure something shorter would not work in its place!) The exhaust nozzles are both capped off with a single small transparent-blue dish. Beneath each wing hangs a single flick-powered missile launcher. (In the “Clone Wars” miniseries, the missile launchers were located in the space between the fuselage and main engines, but obviously that wouldn’t have been workable here.) When you press on the black tab in back, the short rod pushes forward, and the projectile shoots out depending on how hard you press. Four projectiles can be made, though the set can carry only two at a time; one under each wing in the launcher(s). When in landing mode, the V-19 rests on two landing gear assemblies. Because of how top-heavy the toy is, the landing gear intentionally & noticeably tilt it forward a degree-or-two, which allows it to rest comfortably without tipping over in any direction. (In the miniseries, the V-19 had three small landing pads.) Because of the mechanisms that move everything around, the mid-wing spacing between the fuselage and the main engines are completely exposed. The cockpit canopy can slide open by pulling gently on two small tabs projecting from the nose. This is perhaps the most obvious deviation from the film version of the V-19- the nose is pronged; whereas here, it is flat. Inside the cockpit is just enough room for the Clone Trooper pilot provided. The control panel is the same one used for previous Rebel Alliance spacecraft- notably the X-Wing Fighter (Set #6212).

. . .

If you wish to store the V-19 set, but don’t have the vertical room to spare, the wings and tail can be separated from their rotation joints (though this is not in the instructions, obviously)

Transition to Flight Mode

To operate the mechanism, the heavier tail is used as the lever upon which everything works; the wings and landing gear are tied into it rather than the other way around. To prevent the entire works from unintentionally activating in Landing Mode, a small swiveling catch lever is located at the base of the tail in back- when turned 90° to either side, the tail will not move. (A clever and simple solution!)

The tail is leaned backwards to activate the transition mechanism. At the same time that the tail and wings are moving, the landing gear will swing back and upwards closer to the mid-wing section between the fuselage and engines- so you have three parts moving all at the same time!

Because of the weight of the wings & tail, and the ease with which they would suddenly flop downwards, Lego incorporated a safety mechanism to prevent this- two air-compression pistons, located above the landing gear in the mid-wing sections. These forcibly slow the tail from dropping suddenly. Besides, once moved past a certain angle backwards, gravity takes over and pulls the tail downwards the full 180° anyways. This is a safety feature that really only applies to switching into Flight Mode, so even though you’ll still feel the resistance as the tail is pushed back upwards, it won’t fight you nearly as much.

Now, if you’re thinking to yourself, “I don’ need no stinkin’ safety feature!”, and you disconnect the pistons so that the tail just drops all on its own, you should think again. The tail really whips around- so much so that when it reaches the end of the line, with enough force the tail will fly straight off! Plus, you have no control over it and/or reaction time, and you may pinch yourself! If you want to hold the tail all the way down, then that’s your choice, but I would strongly recommend that you do not remove the pistons.

(Obviously, with enough use, the rubber plungers inside the pistons will eventually wear out, and this feature will become less-and-less reliable.)

Flight Mode

(The black stands made of Legos that you see are MOC, and are not included with this set!)

In this form, the V-19- for lack of a better word- blossoms out to unexpected proportions! The wingspan zooms out to 19” (48cm), but this measurement is false in a way... Though the wings are correctly hanging down diagonally, they are actually being pulled down by gravity. The flexibility in the wing joints are just enough that they can bend down like that, but- with the wings disconnected- the joints actually hang on their own directly horizontal. (So, if you were to turn the set upside down, the wings would then hang horizontally because their weight, once more, would be dragging them downwards.) So don’t be deceived- it is because of their weight that the wings hang down like that, not because the joints position them like that! The other thing is that, unlike in Landing Mode, the tail does not lock into place; it just hangs there. The landing gear retract up and backward, but do not disappear from sight entirely like their animated and film counterparts do.

In this form, a few new features make themselves more easily apparent- notably the wingtip-mounted laser blasters, and the tail-mounted secondary engine. The latter does not have much substance to it compared to the main engines above it, except for intake and exhaust nozzles- again with a small transparent-blue dish for the glowing exhaust. The air-compression pistons are also easier to see up close, and the cockpit can be accessed easier.

One thing that I must stress is that the V-19 cannot possibly support its own weight in Flight Mode- the wings are too flexible, and the main engine nozzles are too fragile with just that one Technic rod in there to hold all those segments together; both could break if too much weight is put on them. And even though the retracted landing gear can still move a little bit, they are not meant to be pushed around, so just leave them alone.

Lego Set #7674 comes with a Clone Trooper pilot (identifiable by the yellow marking on his helmet), and a single blaster rifle (which has appeared in many “Star Wars” sets before). Beneath the helmet is the clone’s real flesh-toned face (though no replacement hair piece is provided). It’s actually kinda creepy how close his face is to the clone’s genetic donor- the intergalactic bounty hunter Jango Fett (actor Temuera Morrison). The helmet is also notable for having all of the colored highlights being printed on, instead of having a black head piece underneath to provide the black visor as has been the tradition up until now.

One new feature must be pointed out here that I have never seen before, and that is the double-printed torso. Since the creation of the modern Lego minifig decades ago, they now always have some kind of printed pattern on their the front of their torso part; leaving the back the original plain coloring of the plastic. I don’t know how widespread this is throughout the Lego System yet, but this Clone Trooper definitely has a printed pattern on his back which recreates the back of the character(s) from the film! Quite a historical achievement for the Lego System, eh?

I don’t get a Lego set unless I look at it and say “Wow” a moment later. I also haven’t seen “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” yet. Yet in both cases, I was immediately drawn to this set upon first glance. It didn’t have a lot of accessories or extra needless minifigs & droids, or a display stand, and really it doesn’t need any of those. Whereas in the past with fighters with large movable sections, you had to do them one at a time, or there might be a lever you had to twist or push to make that feature work. Not here. You just trip the safety catch, and the whole thing deploys all by itself (provided it’s upright, of course). The other thing is that the ship itself- despite its source material!- really looks like it comes from the Star Wars universe, and that to me is equally important. It has those traits of the [future] X-Wing, B-Wing and A-Wing Fighters, but it’s not a Rebel ship either. But then placing the tail underneath the fuselage means that this is a very advanced ship. My only beef comes from how pathetically-weak the missile launchers are (they fall out at the earliest possible conveniences!), and that the main engines are unnerving in how fragile they are despite their outward appearance. I was also a bit disappointed that the wings are pulled down to that angle by gravity rather than shifting via the internal gears to that position. (But I’m sure MOC-ists are already working on the problem...) I was also expecting springs of some kind in those pistons rather than rubber seals that will eventually wear out [knowing how rubber in Lego sets gets beaten up very easily]. Am I disappointed that the nose was solid as opposed to having to prongs? Ch-- I’m not that concerned about authenticity! The sliding canopy was pretty cool too despite it being the only manual feature in the entire set!

One piece of advice: when you’re happily flying your V-19 Torrent through the hallways, be careful that you don’t clip a door frame with the wings!